Is The Agile Workplace just a pipe dream?
Performance measurement is about measuring output, outcomes and results. This works well in the open market, but there are some tricky situations where performance measurement needs to take a qualitative rather than quantitative approach.
Apparently, in road construction the grader driver determines the cadence and speed of the gang of workers. While most councils will pay the base wage for this role and attract average grader drivers. The private contractors are attracting superior talent who can grade the road in half the time.
In practice this means that a good grader driver will grade the road in about four passes of the grader. Since the speed of the whole road gang is set by this, the gang cannot go faster than the grader driver, and the whole project is determined by how many times he/she has to grade the road.
An excellent grader driver will finish the job in two passes. This means that the entire project can now be finished in half the time. Since the wage band for any role is about 14% in government. This outstanding performer is not paid according to results but rather by policy. Needless to say, outstanding grader drivers are not common in local councils. This is why the private sector is able to attract and retain above average workers: They pay according to outcomes.
I dream of a day when people will not be remunerated by a roll call, by clocking in and clocking out, but by production and achievement. This will revolutionise the workplace in many ways. Firstly, jobs will get done quicker. The slow and the incompetent will be weeded out of workplaces. But there’s a global concern that will also be solved. If you are measured by what you achieve, then in some instances you don’t even have to be “at work” to achieve that. Telecommuting, the vision of decades ago, can finally come true. Companies can divest of their expensive CBD offices and have an agile workforce of savvy digital nomads who are managed remotely. They can produce outcomes from the comfort of their home or favourite place in the world.
If you have ever battled traffic jams, peak hour stress or rush hour public transport, you too are yearning for an end to this madness. Armed with a laptop, you know that you can efficiently complete your assigned tasks with less interruptions, less stress and more focus than you can at the office. Yet we continue in this ancient ritual in order to satisfy management who mostly come from an era where working remotely wasn’t possible.
The planet will also benefit from millions of cars being kept off the road. Governments, who can at times be more conservative are leading the charge in this. With agile desks, Activity Based Working, flexible work policies and remote logins to their networks, they are creating the environment for this to happen. A massive push to allow information workers to work from anywhere they chose will be a revolution unprecedented in human history.
From a lifestyle point of view, now you can live in your favourite holiday spot, which in the past was impractical because of its distance to a capital city – where the jobs were. Roads and tunnels and other transport infrastructure (which is expensive to build and maintain) can be minimised. Of course, our grader driver cannot do his work remotely, but with less wear and tear on our roads, neither do we have to employ so many of them!
Mario Cortés is an author, speaker and practitioner in Business and Change Management. He can be contacted at: www.biznetau.com
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4 年very relevant now Mario !!
Adult Vocational Education and Training Professional
6 年Stop and think, once the workplace has weeded out the less productive, and these people don't have a job they then become disengaged from society, what will they do, can't get a job they need to survive, eventually they will turn to crime and make your hard earned goods theirs, looks like people that think like you need governments and councils to employ the second and third best workers to minimise crime and stop the idiots from having their goods stolen or even worse outcomes.
The creator of Prickly2sweet. The system saving thousands in time and money whilst reviewing assessment.
6 年As a telecommuter myself, well actually my business doesn't have a building, all my staff are telecommuters, I for one know that this method of workplace works very well in our circumstance., has done for the last 3 years, there are so many benefits. Our work life balance is more life than work, no hours wasted on commuting, great for stress and reducing pollution. Our productivity us high with low cost, no building or amenities. Our online platforms are efficient, no paper in sight. I will say this though, you really have to have all your systems in place for support, access, KPI's and standards, your staff have to have the highest level of ability to work autonomously and communicate extremely well. It isnt for everyone but I think a lot more people would be happier if they could do it and business could be more productive. To answer your question yes sometimes it is management that stop it, micro kind, but it is also the communities, business and social, ability to train staff for the skills to be able to cope with the environment.
IT professional, multiskilled, less specialized
6 年What a compelling way to think of productivity! I love the grader analogy.